Global X S&P 500 Christian Values ETF (CHRI)

Global X S&P 500 Christian Values ETF (CHRI) is an exchange-traded fund that owns a filtered version of the S&P 500, excluding companies whose business practices conflict with explicitly defined Christian ethical principles — a values-screened index fund that lets investors hold broad U.S. large-cap stocks without ownership of specific sectors and companies.

Values-based investing predates the modern financial industry. For generations, religious institutions and ethically minded investors have steered capital away from businesses they consider immoral, seeking out companies whose practices align with their beliefs. Exclusionary screens — avoiding alcohol, gambling, weapons, or other sectors — represent a form of capital allocation with a conscience. The Global X S&P 500 Christian Values ETF brings this tradition into the institutional, indexed era, automating the work of screening and holding a diversified but values-aligned portfolio in a single security.

The fund’s architecture is straightforward. It begins with the S&P 500 — the five hundred largest U.S. companies by market capitalization — and then applies a Christian values screen. This screen eliminates companies directly involved in abortion services or contraception provision, gambling and gaming, alcohol production, tobacco, cannabis, weapons manufacturing, and pornography. It also may exclude companies with governance practices or labor records that fall short of the fund provider’s interpretation of Christian ethics. The remaining universe is held in market-cap-weighted proportions, creating a diversified but constrained portfolio.

The real effect of screening is material. By eliminating entire sectors and many large individual companies, the resulting portfolio diverges meaningfully from the pure S&P 500. Some industries appear overweight, others are entirely absent. A standard S&P 500 tracker would hold major alcohol and tobacco firms proportional to their market value; CHRI would not hold them at all. Weapons manufacturers disappear. Gaming and casino operators are gone. The fund retains the core characteristics of broad diversification — it still holds hundreds of large-cap stocks across many industries — but the scope is narrower.

A critical question for any values-screened portfolio is how that screening affects returns. If an excluded sector — say, alcohol or tobacco — experiences outsized gains, CHRI will lag the pure S&P 500 simply by not owning those winners. Conversely, if excluded sectors underperform, the values screen becomes a tailwind. Over decades, the relative performance depends on whether the screened-out companies have been net winners or net losers in the market. This relationship changes with economic cycles and industry conditions. Sometimes values alignment has cost; sometimes it has been free. An investor in CHRI is explicitly accepting that some periods will see the fund underperform the unadjusted S&P 500 in exchange for alignment with their ethical framework. This is not a hidden cost; it is a known trade-off.

The fund’s expense ratio is modest — slightly higher than a basic S&P 500 index ETF to cover the ongoing costs of screening, research, and rebalancing, but not dramatically so. The fund trades on the NASDAQ with good liquidity and tight bid-ask spreads. Turnover is driven by the underlying S&P 500 index’s changes and by any shifts in which companies meet the Christian values criteria.

CHRI appeals to Christian investors seeking broad, diversified U.S. equity exposure without holding companies they consider unethical. It offers simplicity: rather than researching every large-cap company, an investor can purchase CHRI and trust that a defined ethical standard has been applied. The tradeoff is delegation — the investor accepts the fund provider’s interpretation of “Christian values.” The fund’s methodology should detail which sectors are automatically excluded. Investors may disagree with specific decisions: does a pharmaceutical company providing contraception alongside other services count as a “contraception provider”? These definitional questions have multiple reasonable Christian answers, and the fund’s methodology reflects one particular set.

The fund is also a statement of values. Whether values-based investing actually changes corporate behavior is contested; some scholars argue divestment pressure constrains companies, while others say it merely reassures investors.

To evaluate CHRI, start with the prospectus to understand the screening criteria and current top holdings. Compare the fund’s sector weightings to the S&P 500 to see divergences. Examine rolling returns relative to the S&P 500 over years and decades to assess whether the values screen has been a performance drag or boost. That context helps decide whether the ethical alignment is worth any return differential.